“Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything” are the five contenders for the best film of 2014 at the EE British Academy Film Awards, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced on Friday morning in London.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” led all films with 11 nominations, with “Birdman” receiving 10. The two British biopics, “The Theory of Everything” and “The Imitation Game,” received 10 and nine nominations, respectively.
“Boyhood” and “Whiplash” received five nominations each.
The five top films, all considered strong Oscar Best Picture contenders, led a group of BAFTA nominees that are likely to look a lot like what will be unveiled by the Academy next Thursday.
Also read: Golden Globes Predictions: Who Will Win, Who Should Win
The Best Director category almost mirrored Best Film: Nominees were Alejandro G. Inarritu for “Birdman,” Richard Linklater for “Boyhood,” Wes Anderson for “Grand Budapest,” James Marsh for “Theory of Everything” and one substitution, Damien Chazelle for “Whiplash” in place of Morten Tyldum for best-film nominee “The Imitation Game.”
The BAFTA acting races are apt to mirror the Academy’s closely. In Best Actor, the nominees are Benedict Cumberbatch for “The Imitation Game,” Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything,” Jake Gyllenhaal for “Nightcrawler,” Michael Keaton for “Birdman” and Ralph Fiennes for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (but not Timothy Spall for Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner,” a celebrated performance thought to have a better chance with BAFTA voters than their stateside counterparts).
Oscar contender Steve Carell, who has been pushed in the Best Actor category for the Oscars, was nominated in the Supporting Actor category at the BAFTAs, where he joins fellow “Foxcatcher” actor Mark Ruffalo, J.K. Simmons for “Whiplash,” Ethan Hawke for “Boyhood” and Edward Norton for “Birdman.”
In the Best Actress category, the contenders are Amy Adams for “Big Eyes,” Felicity Jones for “The Theory of Everything,” Julianne Moore for “Still Alice,” Reese Witherspoon for “Wild” and Rosamund Pike for “Gone Girl.”
Patricia Arquette leads the Supporting Actress field for “Boyhood,” along with Keira Knightley for “Imitation Game,” Emma Stone for “Birdman,” Rene Russo for “Nightcrawler” and Imelda Staunton for “Pride.”
Overall, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Nightcrawler” (with four nominations) continued their strong showing in awards season, with the latter film becoming the year’s most unexpected contender and the former continuing to be the one film that has been nominated by virtually ever guild and voting group.
“Selma” reportedly qualified for the awards, but it did not receive a single nomination — not even Best Actor for the British-born David Oyelowo, who plays Martin Luther King. And while “Unbroken” opened in the UK just after Christmas, Angelina Jolie’s wartime drama was also shut out by BAFTA voters.
See photos: Golden Globes 2015: The Nominees (Photos)
In the Outstanding British Film category, the nominees were “Imitation Game,” “Theory of Everything,” “’71,” “Paddington,” “Pride” and “Under the Skin.” The Film Not in the English Language field consists of “Ida,” “Leviathan,” “The Lunchbox,” “Trash” and “Two Days, One Night.”
Last year, all five of the BAFTA Best Film nominees went on to receive Oscar nominations, as did 14 out of the 20 acting nominees. In fact, in five of the last six years, all of BAFTA’s top film nominees have then been nominated by the Academy.
But BAFTA voters don’t always agree with their Stateside counterparts: Last year, for instance, they didn’t give any nominations to “Dallas Buyers Club,” which ended up winning Academy Awards for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
The EE British Academy Film Awards will take place on Feb. 8 in London.
The nominations:
BEST FILM
BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
THE IMITATION GAME Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
THE IMITATION GAME Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King, David Heyman
PRIDE Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
UNDER THE SKIN Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
ELAINE CONSTANTINE (Writer/Director) Northern Soul
GREGORY BURKE (Writer), YANN DEMANGE (Director) ’71
HONG KHAOU (Writer/Director) Lilting
PAUL KATIS (Director/Producer), ANDREW DE LOTBINIÈRE (Producer) Kajaki: The True Story
STEPHEN BERESFORD (Writer), DAVID LIVINGSTONE (Producer) Pride
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
IDA Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska
LEVIATHAN Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov
THE LUNCHBOX Ritesh Batra, Arun Rangachari, Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga
TRASH Stephen Daldry, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Kris Thykier
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd
DOCUMENTARY
20 FEET FROM STARDOM Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Gil Friesen
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
CITIZENFOUR Laura Poitras
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
VIRUNGA Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara
ANIMATED FILM
BIG HERO 6 Don Hall, Chris Williams
THE BOXTROLLS Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable
THE LEGO MOVIE Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
DIRECTOR
BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
NIGHTCRAWLER Dan Gilroy
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
AMERICAN SNIPER Jason Hall
GONE GIRL Gillian Flynn
THE IMITATION GAME Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Anthony McCarten
LEADING ACTOR
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH The Imitation Game
EDDIE REDMAYNE The Theory of Everything
JAKE GYLLENHAAL Nightcrawler
MICHAEL KEATON Birdman
RALPH FIENNES The Grand Budapest Hotel
LEADING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS Big Eyes
FELICITY JONES The Theory of Everything
JULIANNE MOORE Still Alice
REESE WITHERSPOON Wild
ROSAMUND PIKE Gone Girl
SUPPORTING ACTOR
EDWARD NORTON Birdman
ETHAN HAWKE Boyhood
J.K. SIMMONS Whiplash
MARK RUFFALO Foxcatcher
STEVE CARELL Foxcatcher
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
EMMA STONE Birdman
IMELDA STAUNTON Pride
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY The Imitation Game
PATRICIA ARQUETTE Boyhood
RENE RUSSO Nightcrawler
ORIGINAL MUSIC
BIRDMAN Antonio Sanchez
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Alexandre Desplat
INTERSTELLAR Hans Zimmer
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jóhann Jóhannsson
UNDER THE SKIN Mica Levi
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BIRDMAN Emmanuel Lubezki
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Robert Yeoman
IDA Lukasz Zal, Ryzsard Lenczewski
INTERSTELLAR Hoyte van Hoytema
MR. TURNER Dick Pope
EDITING
Due to a tie in voting in this category, there are six nominations
BIRDMAN Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Barney Pilling
THE IMITATION GAME William Goldenberg
NIGHTCRAWLER John Gilroy
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jinx Godfrey
WHIPLASH Tom Cross
PRODUCTION DESIGN
BIG EYES Rick Heinrichs, Shane Vieau
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
THE IMITATION GAME Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
INTERSTELLAR Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
MR. TURNER Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts
COSTUME DESIGN
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Milena Canonero
THE IMITATION GAME Sammy Sheldon Differ
INTO THE WOODS Colleen Atwood
MR. TURNER Jacqueline Durran
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Steven Noble
MAKE UP & HAIR
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Frances Hannon
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White
INTO THE WOODS Peter Swords King, J. Roy Helland
MR. TURNER Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jan Sewell
SOUND
AMERICAN SNIPER Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
BIRDMAN Thomas Varga, Martin Hernández, Aaron Glascock, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak
THE IMITATION GAME John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Stuart Hilliker, Martin Jensen
WHIPLASH Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
INTERSTELLAR Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
THE BIGGER PICTURE Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka
MONKEY LOVE EXPERIMENTS Ainslie Henderson, Cam Fraser, Will Anderson
MY DAD Marcus Armitage
BRITISH SHORT FILM
BOOGALOO AND GRAHAM Brian J. Falconer, Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney
EMOTIONAL FUSEBOX Michael Berliner, Rachel Tunnard
THE KÁRMÁN LINE Campbell Beaton, Dawn King, Tiernan Hanby, Oscar Sharp
SLAP Islay Bell-Webb, Michelangelo Fano, Nick Rowland
THREE BROTHERS Aleem Khan, Matthieu de Braconier, Stephanie Paeplow
THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
GUGU MBATHA-RAW
JACK O’CONNELL
MARGOT ROBBIE
MILES TELLER
SHAILENE WOODLEY